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WORLD / Health
Arrhythmia riskier in athletes
(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-03 11:04
VIENNA, Austria -- Cardiac problems like an abnormal heartbeat are
exacerbated by rigorous exercise in a way that can be fatal in athletes,
and regular testing for the problem could save lives, doctors at a heart
conference said Sunday.
Fans show their emotions as they pass by the coffin wrapped with the team
flag, center right background, of 22-year-old Sevilla soccer player
Antonio Puerta in Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville,
Spain, after the player died in a hospital in Seville, Tuesday Aug. 28,
2007, three days after collapsing on the field here during his team's
Spanish league opener against Getafe. [AP]
Italy is the only country that mandates heart screening of all its
professional athletes, Dr Domenico Corrado of the University of Padua
said at the European Society for Cardiology meeting in Vienna.
Since 1981, Italian authorities have run heart checks on all competing
athletes. The incidence of sudden, fatal heart attacks has dropped from
four cases per 100,000 to 0.4 cases per 100,000.
Without testing, athletes genetically predisposed to having an irregular
heartbeat might not be aware of their condition until it's too late,
doctors said. Adrenaline produced during exercise may overstimulate the
heart, causing it to essentially short-circuit.
"Sport acts as a trigger," Corrado said in research presented at the
meeting.
Corrado said he had no ties to companies involved in screening athletes.
The research was funded by the Italian government.
Last week, Antonio Puerta became the latest high-profile soccer player to
die while competing.
After the 22-year-old Sevilla midfielder lost consciousness and fell,
doctors treated him on the field and he walked off, but then had a heart
attack in the locker room and another in the emergency room of a Seville
hospital.
He died three days later.
A day after Puerta's death, former Zambia striker Chaswe Nsofwa died
minutes after collapsing on the field during a training session with
Israeli club Hapoel Beersheba. The 27-year-old Nsofwa was given electric
shocks and an external pacemaker but could not be revived by paramedics.
On Aug. 24, 16-year-old Anton Reid of English League One team Walsall
died after collapsing on the field.
Because they have been exercising vigorously, many athletes who collapse
during competition do not have enough oxygen in their bodies to allow the
heart to start pumping again, even if a defibrillator is used to try to
restart their heart.
FIFA, world soccer's governing body, deemed the risk of irregular
heartbeats to be so great that before last year's World Cup in Berlin,
its medical committee demanded that all players undergo heart scans.
Following the recent deaths, FIFA said it was considering expanding
health checks.
"Athletes may have a silent but important heart disease that's not ...
manifest," said Dr Douglas Zipes, a cardiologist at Indiana University
School of Medicine. Though little data exist, Zipes said that a genetic
disorder may cause some athletes' hearts to get abnormally big when they
train.
Corrado estimated that the cost of Italy's heart screening program is
about $82 per athlete. Other countries are not convinced that screening
is worth the cost, given how few athletes are at risk. Concerns have been
raised about the effectiveness of the scan, which relies largely on
echocardiograms, a test that shows if the heart is pumping normally.
"As a screening test, it's very imperfect," said Dr Gordon Tomaselli,
chief of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University and spokesman for the
American Heart Association. "It can pick up many of the things that cause
sudden death, but not all of them."
Doctors said that more awareness about the potential dangers is key to
preventing future deaths, though not all athletes with suspicious tests
will collapse on the field.
"Coaches should pay more attention to their players' symptoms," Zipes
said. "If an athlete is complaining about chest pains or shortness of
breath, those are warning signs that should not be ignored."
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